Onlive is Live !!!

If any of you know Onlive is a streaming service for video games and other junk, that renders graphics in a specialized server farm and then streams the graphics to you while you stream control inputs back (well thats my understanding anyways).

Now my thoughts are for the public, do you think something like this could catch on ? Allowing a super computer to render means no hardware in the house is needed other then a comp and an internet connection. Meaning they can upgrade one piece of hardware to be far more advanced in graphics and have a graphical leap forward.

The only problems really holding this back is bandwidth, which is obviously a huge issue. I was just wondering if anyone on the forums has tried it out? what your lag was like? and how did it look on a big screen in hd ? Any square artifacts or any artifacts for that matter?

Im super curious as to how this actually works in the consumer house, they are now demoing a subscription for this year free , and most games appearently have a 30 day demo trial to test it out.

So please comment on anything related I'd like to know everyones thoughts !!

 

First question is... how do you sign up? There's nothing on the site that allows you to sign up.

Perhaps take the discussion to the already open thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/466476-onlive-coming-june.html

 

oops sorry, failed to search forums for relavent thread, thanks for link .

 

The disappointing point so far is not the bandwidth itself but the fact that you have to pay a subscription on top of buying the game from them... thus so far the judgements falls between 'we will see in the future' to 'it is a total failure'. As someone who likes to see how the envelope can be pushed I stand to the first judgement until real data (news) is seen.

 

Maybe they got this idea from Assasins Creed 2 DRM but I don't like the idea of relying on something like internet bandwidth or connection to be able to play my games. I want as much control as possible and it is a lot of fun tweaking, testing different hardware, Drivers and buying new tech to get better performance. Onlive = soulless gaming.

 

Yeah the reviews are out.

It's 720p, quality is mediocre.

The lag is as we all thought. If you are a PC Gamer which we are, there is constant controller lag, at all times. Review says if you are a console gamer, may not notice the lag.

Wonderful.

 

Will this replace PC gaming? No. Will this make portable devices like netbooks and iPod Touch's/iPads awesome portable gaming devices? Maybe...

Something like OnLive has no business with the average PC gamer, but it does have its place, thats for sure.

It WILL NOT and CANNOT EVER replace traditional PC gaming/upgrading and what not.

 

this might actually work better in Japan, with faster speed internet and centralized population and stuff

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it will be a momentary niche fad, which will fade away after a short time of fighting to keep its customers.

It can never happen so long as gamers live who were around "back in the day" when we didn't have/couldn't trust our internet connections.

 

How would that matter? The lag is that it's the OnLive server going to game server and back and then to you.

Also review has said, no matter what you do, it has no effect on video, this is not true 720p quality.

It's like a video with 1280*720 resolution, but the quality is half that of a BluRay 720p though.

 

That era is already ending with so many games requiring an internet connection and the trend growing. In 2 years it'll be the standard form of DRM.

 

One problem I note so far is that the reviews I've read or video reviews are from non pc-gamers.

Mac users excited about it.

Console gamers.

And all the reviews are saying this 720 looks really good. So this tells me right off the bat, these are not hardcore PC Gamers, 720p blows.

This is the type of gameplay I see. These players wouldn't no if lag hit them on the head... So I suppose this would be awesome if you had a netbook...
- I can feel the lag just watching...

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That dude's voice pierces my ears.

 

I agree...

Onlive seem great at first, until someone notice something of their terms of service:

I got this from a forum post:

Also, does anyone knows how much the games will cost, meaning is it the same as retail box version?

 

Oh man, I didn't notice the supporting time. At first I thought the only risk was the closure of the account by lack of renewal. Now the games are only temporarily supported? Unless the game prices are significantly lower than retail/digital prices, I wouldnn't pay more than 10-15 bucks for a game that I will 'own' for 3 years, I'd never look at it as an option... even if all I could afford was a netbook.

 

I just look at it as a rental service really. And you can't really play with a netbook because it requires a dual core CPU. Sure some netbooks are starting to be dual core, but is an Atom dual core even powerful enough? I'm still very sceptical though about lag too. I think there will be a very limited audience and this system will fail in about a year. Or it will thrive in a few markets and that's about it.

 

720p is tolerable... but quite frankly both macs and consoles already produce better results than Onlive can. Unless your computer has a lower-end graphics system than a mac, the service is worthless and problematic. Given how bottom-of-the-barrel mac gaming is already, I don't see this as an issue.

 

True, you can buy an Xbox 360 for like $199 now and rent games for what, about $16/mo?

 

It really sounds like no one should be using this service, since in the end you're really giving them money for nothing. Especially if you've already paid full retail price for the games, and that presumably means the developers, not just OnLive, have been paid for them, they should have to send you a DVD or at least let you download them when your service ends.

 

It's a bit amusing really, watching this thread with some high-and-mighty "hardcore PC gamers" sipping their tea (with the little finger sticking out, of course) claiming how much better they are than the lowlife console/Mac gamers...

In other news, I have tried OnLive, and guess how much time it took me to start playing the Borderlands demo for the first time. About 30 seconds since I booted my computer.

Sure I can't play in 1920x1200 with antialiasing up the wazoo. Sure I can't play for free even after paying a monthly fee. But for gamers with a crappy PC from 10,000 B.C.E., this is fantastic.

Edit: If you haven't guessed yet, I'm getting tired of hearing all this talk of how PC >>>>>> console.

Edit 2: I also just measured CPU and GPU usage - CPU at ~20-30%; GPU at ~15% at 3D clocks (383/767/301 MHz). GPU usage is practically the same as watching HD video.

Edit 3: Rant over, maybe.

Edit 4: The lag is definitely noticeable with a mouse in Borderlands. But with a controller, the lag time is just about equal to the time it takes you to physically move the analog stick from side to side. In Dirt 2, with a controller, lag is practically nonexistent.

 

want to know what is really stupid about your impression of onlive?

your disgust of pc gamers loving pc gaming over consoles on a notebook forum?

why don't you buy a console instead of onlive?

$300 for a ps3 right now.
- you own your game
- you don't have to deal with whether you connected to a data center that will give you good or bad performance
- don't have to worry about lag
- if you take a break, you don't have to worry about your account closing. (onlive will close your account if inactive for 12 months and delete all your games and data).
- graphics won't look like garbage.

so why bother with onlive?

 

The problem with onlive is that it's really simply just watching video, they are just transmitting video data, and the video is in low res and highly compressed to greatly reduce bandwidth usage so that playing the game is actually possible in the first place, resulting in the extremely low picture quality.

 

I do in fact own an Xbox 360; had it since 2006. I've actually been enjoying Red Dead Redemption quite thoroughly all week.

I do not have a problem with people who love PC gaming (I happen to be one of them, which is exactly why I bought this laptop). I do have a problem with people who diss consoles (and console gamers, for some incomprehensible reason) just for being less capable. After all, how much can you expect from hardware from 2005?

P.S. My ears are bleeding.

P.P.S. Graphics don't look like garbage. Playback is quite smooth, and 5Mbps video seems sufficient. A good comparison is like watching a Netflix streaming "HD" movie with the Xbox 360 client as opposed to a locally played DVD. The difference is noticeable, but not huge. I find it quite impressive really, that they manage to keep the quality so high while encoding in real-time.

Edit: Let us keep this discussion limited to OnLive. For the PC vs console debate see _Josh's excellent post here.

 

The problem is that it looks like you're playing a streaming video. The graphics are all on low, and you're stuck being tethered to a hard line. You pay full price for a game that you lose if you cancel your membership, and rental options are too strict, 3 days or 5 days.

In theory this thing sounds awesome, but in reality, I couldn't play more than what the demo offered in Borderlands because the lag was horrendous. I even got skipped frames, etc. I have a decent dual core CPU running this thing. I can't imagine what an older dual core would do. I'm going to try it later on an Athlon 64 X2 3600+ machine and see how well it does. I'd like to see a dual core Athlon Neo or Atom netbook try this out.

edit: Just tried this on my Athlon 64 X2 3600+ system and it ran pretty decently except CPU was at ~75% on both cores.

Another down side that I see to this is no mods or configuration changes either. You get what you get.

 

Yeah, I do find the wired connection requirement odd. My wireless connection is perfectly stable, thank you very much (just streamed Germany v Ghana live this morning to my Xbox 360 in HD and it was fine; no interruptions).

Ah yes, I didn't consider the lack of mods either...

In any case, I won't say no to one year for free; probably won't buy a game on the service though. Using it as a platform to demo a game without the need to install is great as it is.

The pricing is also unfortunate. There's no way I'm "buying" a three/five-day demo for whatever price.

There you have it, my cons.

 

So, does it only work in US or...?

If you already have a powerful enough PC I don't see much point in having this, though if you have no console and want to play some console games without buying console this might be good, if they have console games as well (do they?).

 

It's only requirement is a dual core CPU and it only has PC games. So if you have a dual core CPU and crappy GPU you can still play. I still think it has a very limited audience though considering the pricing mainly. I think a fixed monthly fee allowing you to play any game at any time would make the most sense. Otherwise you buy a game, leave the service for six months, you lose that game.

 

Hmm. I might actually consider if they have console games so that I can play console games on PC, but if they only have PC games... the market will be very niche, only people with PC that can't even run games on 720p + low-medium quality + even worse quality because of video compression + input lag and running it at a low 30FPS will probably get this, which is a small group of people indeed.

 

you need a c2d for this?
they virtually wiped out their biggest market then in the form of netbook users. and i doubt if anyone on a desktop pc would be interested in this.
could be heavily promoted to macbook and pc laptop users with inferior graphics capabilities, the pricing is a killer tho.

 

No, system requirements say "dual core CPU" not really Core 2 Duo. But I doubt a dual core Atom could handle the load since my Athlon 64 X2 3600+ runs at about 75% CPU load when running OnLive.

 

This actually looks very interesting. Been watching this review of it for a bit and the only downside that I"m seeing is the price.
YouTube - OnLive Review June 2010 HD

 

It isn't all that great, trust me. The $5/mo isn't bad. It's the 3 day and 5 day rentals and full price games. Best to play with an Xbox 360 controller to minimize the input lag. Mouse and keyboard lag responsiveness is definitely noticable.

 

Heh, yeah, sell it to Mac users, they don't know any better

*ducks and covers*

 

Only Macbook owners could afford this anyway.

 

They should just make it mac exclusive and call it iLive and be done with it, doubt any PC users with PCs less than 3 years old would want it.

 

And just by pure marketing of the 'i' stuff it may be a complete sucess...

 

Im surprised this thread is still going I thought it died, glad to see the discussion. Ive read in a few places now that games only last for some 3 years, thats rubbish, I go back and play super mario all the time, imagine if you couldnt turn on your nes and play a game you paid for anymore. thats rediculous and thats def another shot to the heart for this service.

This service does have its merrits, it works like a Wii, trying to expand the market to people that might not have picked up gaming because of buying more hardware or price, although this has already been proven to be just as expensive. If this was something included in a set top box with comcast or something this might have some legs to break into another market, potentially.

And someone commented earlier about games only on consoles. My response to that is, probably not. I say this because if your talking about something like Gears, or Metal Gear Solid, or Uncharted, those are exclusive content creative by sonys and microsoft developers that wont ever be ported to anything else, thats their draw to buy their hardware and its a silly game because it excludes other gamers and ultimately loses them money ( one hardware for all!!!). But the other side to this is that most console 360 games end up on pc anyways, so pcs dont miss on too much stuff.